Chapter 25: 24

“I’m ho–”

“I’ve been waiting for you, Higashi Kujo-kun!　Let’s go!”

“You’re too eager! I just got home!”

Kiryu was very excited on the day of our “library date”. Perhaps because this was planned just yesterday her excitement had not yet died down. 

Kiryu had the most sparkling smile I have ever seen on her face. I smiled back at her and went to the front door to change my shoes.

“Come on! Let’s go!”

— I wasn’t able to take them off.

“Wait, what about my clothes?!”

“It’s good as it is!  I’m in my uniform too so it’s alright!  It’s not like we’re going anywhere strange.”

“No, it certainly couldn’t be more wholesome! Just calm down a minute! Libraries don’t run away, do they?”

“The library won’t run away, but you never know, the book I’m after might get borrowed!”

Well, she has a point. 

“Eleven books! I read one yesterday, so I’m giving that back, and ten books of yours, Higashi Kujo-kun!”

“Eleven books..”

I wonder if I can fit that many in my school bag. 

“Since it’s unseemingly, let me remove what’s inside the school bag?”

“Inside?”

“There’s no way in h**l I’m carrying eleven books home by hand.”

Saying this, I took out all the contents from my schoolbag. I held the bag, which was now completely light, under my arm and motioned for Kiryu to come to me.

“Shall we?”

“Yeah! Let’s go!”

As Kiryu urged me, I opened the door I had just come from and went out again. 

Though, shouldn’t we have just met at the station? With this thought in mind, we walked to the station and got on the train, which took about 20 minutes. We arrived at the station nearest the library.

“We’re here!　Come on, let’s go.”

“Fine, fine.”

It’s a five minute walk from the station to the library. 

Smiling at Kiryu, who is clearly in a happy mood, I follow her gait, which makes me wonder if she’s skipping or something.

 “I have already come here a lot of times, but I’m still surprised by how huge it is.”

The library we are looking for is a fairly large one, and although it does not have the largest collection… In Japan, it is said to be one of the top libraries. There is also a store and food area inside the library, in simple terms a cafeteria.

As I looked around, my eyes met a young onee-san looking at me with a curious expression on her face. I don’t remember seeing her, but I wondered if I had met her somewhere before. I bowed to her, and she returned the bow and came closer to me.　

“Hey.”

“Ye… Hi. It’s been a while since yesterday.”

Kiryu’s acquaintance?

“Uh.. Kiryu. Who is this?”

“Kasumi Todo-san. She is a librarian at this library.”

“Ah, I… No. My name is Hiroyuki Higashi-kujo. Please treat me well.”

 (T/N: He first used “ore” which is informal then he replaced it with “boku” which is more formal)

“Nice to meet you. I haven’t seen Ayane-chan since yesterday. So? Today—”

After speaking for a bit, Todo-san then smiled as if she had noticed something.

“I understand! It’s a library date! And also a uniform date~? I like that~!”

“Na~! N-no! I-It’s not a library date! It’s not! I-I’m just purely interested in books!”

“Alright, alright~. Ayane-chan is as cute as ever. And? Is this your boyfriend’s first time here?”

“No, it’s not my first time… but I don’t have a card yet, so I was thinking of getting one.”

“Do you have your student ID?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then I can make it. Great! When my break’s over, I’ll make it for you! Let’s go!”

I lightly brushed off Kiryu, who was insisting “I-It’s not! Kasumi-san, it’s not a date!” and walked into the library with Todo-san pushing me in. 

You don’t have to insist “It’s not a date!” so stubbornly, do you? You’re breaking my heart…

◇◆◇

“And? What is your relationship with Ayane? Are you really her boyfriend?”

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“What is this interrogation-like feeling?”

Do you call it a… window at the library? Anyway, I was taken to a space where I could write down my information and was currently being interrogated by Todo-san, who was sitting behind the counter.

(T/N: Window as in teller-window or counter. First time he says it in Japanese while the second time he just says it in English. Using the word counter twice sounded worse, so yea. )

“Do you want some katsudon?”

“Rather, do you even serve katsudon in here?”

“Unfortunately, eating and drinking is prohibited in the library… So I can’t even serve coffee. “

“Then why did you even mention that?”

“Well, the ‘boyfriend’ called this an interrogation.” (E/N: LMAO, Hataraku reference, anyone?) 

“I’m not her boyfriend.”

“Who are you then? Ayane-chan, who usually comes alone, can’t possibly be with someone, let alone a man, other than her boyfriend?”

“Can’t I be her friend?”

“Not really. Because she doesn’t have any friends, right?”

“You know?”

“A girl who comes to the library every three days, borrows books until the limit, and then leaves? That’s impossible unless she devotes all of her after-school hours and holidays to reading, isn’t it?”

She has a point.

“She comes here every Saturday, too. Hora~, she definitely doesn’t have any friends.”

Although she is right, Kiryu is receiving some pretty harsh things without her knowing. 

Incidentally, Kiryu-san is currently looking for books in the library. At first Kiryu said, ‘I’ll go along with making library cards,’ but then Todo-san said, ‘It’s alright. It’s a job I’m used to. Ayane-chan, go look for books. Or what? You don’t like having your boyfriend taken away?”. She quickly left after that. You’ve got to work a little harder, oi~. I’m the only one being interrogated.

“Furthermore a uniform date~. Pretty nice~.”

“I told you already, I’m not her boyfriend.”

“When you’re out with the opposite s*x, it’s called a date.”

“Well… by definition, you’re probably not wrong.”

“Even if you’re not together, you’re still close enough to go out of your way to bring her after school, right? Are~? It’s rather better that way, isn’t it? Because you’re aware of each other, but yet you both haven’t said anything about how you feel about each other… I like it! Plenty of room for three meals!” 

(T/N: The expression means something like “A great favourite.” or quite simply something you like seeing. ) 

“What are you talking about?” 

I look at Todo-san, with my eyes half closed, who gave me a thumbs-up and a smirk. 

She then scratched her head with a hint of shyness.

“Well~. You know, I’m doing this job because I love books, right? I’m a big fan of romance novels and the like. Especially since Ayane-chan is a super beautiful girl, I was fantasising about what kind of boyfriend she’d bring along.”

“Fantasizing…”

“All book lovers have fantasies, you know?”

“No, I don’t.”

They don’t, right? Wait. By any chance, do they?

“Well, you think about, ‘What’s going to happen to the rest of this story?’, don’t you? It’s an extension of that, Ayane-chan is actually a celebrity here.”

“Is she a celebrity, after all? That Kiryu?”

“That’s right. Some of the staff call her ”the lord” of this library. To be honest, she probably knows more about the library than I do as a third-year college graduate. I heard that she has been coming here since she was a little girl.”

“I don’t think there’s ever been a time in Kiryu’s life when she was that small. “

Todo-san creates a small space with her thumb and index finger and says “this small”.

“Well, that’s a joke… You see, as I said earlier, Ayane-chan is a really beautiful girl, isn’t she? But she always came to the library alone and was kind of famous for that.”

“I’m guessing she’s not coming here to hang out..”

“Yeah. But it’s a little… weird to not come once with friends at that age. She usually just comes to study three times a week.”

“I see.”

“So I was a little worried. Not only me, but the old staff, everyone. Of course, since we chose this job, we’re all readers more than normal people, and I think it’s good that she likes books… But books aren’t all there is to life. You learn some things from friendships, and some things from love.”

“…”

“Well, It has a little bit of a protective feel to it, too. For that reason, take care of Ayane-chan, okay?”

I was a little pleased to see her look, as if she was seriously concerned about Kiryu, and answered with a small “yes”.Then, as if she was satisfied, she patted me on the shoulder and smiled at me.

“By the way, let me know when you start dating!　Please share your sweet and sour love story with me!” 

“Absolutely not.”

Give me back my appreciation of her. If I say that Kiryu’s my fiancee she would say something like “I can have five bowls of rice!” and would go crazy, wouldn’t she? 

(T/N: Same expression as before but he added two more for exaggeration I’m guessing)

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